Whether it’s the things you witness on your TTC commute, your first time partying sober, or your switch to a different soap at home, these seemingly trivial stories all reveal themselves as puzzle pieces of a larger picture. Those ‘little’ things may not be breaking news but, more often than not, it is the trifling moments of life that shine a light on the cogs of a machine — the sputtering engines that fuel the systemic problems of our world.

As the Opinion Editor of The Varsity, I want to showcase writers who have personal experiences to share with our community. The cornerstones of journalism tend to prioritize neutrality, detachment, and the ‘objective truth.’ But that’s not what journalism should be limited to, not to me at least. I could even argue that neutrality is pure fiction, but perhaps we can continue that idea in another letter.

Let me exemplify my point. With the new policies surrounding international student permits in Canada, I don’t just want anyone to comment on it through the lens of economic and political factors. I want to hear specifically from international students to understand how this could affect their dreams for the future, the friendships they’ve formed in a new country, and how piles of paperwork can add to the stress of an already nightmarish exam season. Of course, facts and figures are important, but if the ultimate goal of journalism is to document life and civilization, I struggle to see how it would be meaningful without considering the humanity of it all. 

In Chinese, the word for journalist is “记者” — “the one who remembers,” in its literal English translation. In my view, journalism is about keeping memory alive. And, to foreground memory, we need to talk about experience, belief, and of course, opinions.

This is why I believe the Opinion section is such a unique and wonderful spread in our student paper. It’s an exciting platform that welcomes articles in many shapes and forms: op-eds, editorials, forums, column pieces, and just as we publish letters from the editor, we also very much encourage letters to the editor. This makes it possible for us to have healthy debates and evolutionary dialogue that connect our personal experiences with relevant topics that concern local, national, and international affairs.

Having been the ‘What’s New in News’ columnist at The Varsity last year and now growing into my new role as Opinion Editor, I believe I’ve finally found a vaguely suitable comparison to illustrate the equal, yet different, merits of news and opinion writing. While news is like a gallery of traditional photography, opinions are an Impressionist painting. Impressionists are distinct in that they don’t aim to capture the subject in a pursuit of objectivity like much of traditional photography. Instead, Impressionism reflects and recalls the sensations that make up the idea of the subject. 

Furthermore, just as ‘insignificant,’ individual stories are atomic parts of a larger mosaic, Impressionist paintings are composed of fleeting, unblended brushstrokes, that ultimately represent the painter’s characterization of a scene — skewed by the light, vision, or mood. However, when you look at a Renoir, Monet, or Manet painting, you’ll quickly realize that every fickle detail, every fragmented line, and every blotch of pigment devoid of precision plays a significant role in a painter’s interpretation of the wider narrative.

I don’t think it’s a coincidence that Henri Matisse once said,“Impressionism is the newspaper of the soul.”